Lone Star Audio Fest 2019

erniejade

Both i say!

indyhawg

erniejade wrote: »

I should have enough southwest points by then for a flight. I just need to book on advanced for decent rates. Thats what stopped me this year. When i decided to go, rates were too high because it was too close to the date.

That was what happened to me as well. Airfare was ridiculously expensive.
Hotels in that area are very reasonable though.

gudnoyez

When did Airfares go up? I got a roundtrip flight late March to San Diego with a connecting flight through Dallas for $570.00. I just checked on one the other day to San Diego again to send my Grandson for a couple of weeks and got a $587.00 flight. I did notice it's cheaper if you plan on staying more than a couple of days though, not sure why that would matter.

I'm guessing a round trip flight from Moline or Cedar Rapids would be around $300 or so, I will have to look, of course booking in advance always help. I would love to attend LSAF, maybe I should schedule my next trip to San Diego around next years show with a couple of days to hang out with you guys what are the dates for next Year?

erniejade

I looked at flights from Chicago to Dallas 4-5 months out for a price comparison and they ran 100-170$ each way. On southwest, they ran from 99-180 each way vs 250-400 each way trying to book 2 weeks ago. I just need to plan earlier.

displayname

Pics incoming!

displayname

I'll probably type up more details later, but I wanted to toss those pics in here while I had a chance.
LSAF is insanely fun! It was great getting to meet some more polkies and hear a ton of gear. Thank you to all the more seasoned guys for taking me in and showing me the ropes. Also for the generous amounts of booze provided! Getting to hang out with everyone and chatting was the real fun of the day for sure. It was also really cool getting to have some more extended conversations with Gunny from Sonner and Josh from JWM Acoustics.

I will certainly be going again, and I'll probably make a stronger effort to get a room for at least one night. Quite a few rooms stood out to me, and the whole experience made me appreciate my system as well. Always room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with what I've built with my current investment.

My personal favorites where Skip's main room (Norma and Rosso) and the JWM Acoustics room. I actually told Josh if I was there looking to buy, I would have a really hard time deciding between those two systems. Obviously that's before any price was factored in, purely based on the sound I heard at the show.

Awesome time, and thanks to everyone involved!

nooshinjohn

Did Frank Malitz show up?

treitz3

No.

Tom

verb

displayname wrote: »

I'll probably type up more details later, but I wanted to toss those pics in here while I had a chance.
LSAF is insanely fun! It was great getting to meet some more polkies and hear a ton of gear. Thank you to all the more seasoned guys for taking me in and showing me the ropes. Also for the generous amounts of booze provided! Getting to hang out with everyone and chatting was the real fun of the day for sure. It was also really cool getting to have some more extended conversations with Gunny from Sonner and Josh from JWM Acoustics.

I will certainly be going again, and I'll probably make a stronger effort to get a room for at least one night. Quite a few rooms stood out to me, and the whole experience made me appreciate my system as well. Always room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with what I've built with my current investment.

My personal favorites where Skip's main room (Norma and Rosso) and the JWM Acoustics room. I actually told Josh if I was there looking to buy, I would have a really hard time deciding between those two systems. Obviously that's before any price was factored in, purely based on the sound I heard at the show.

Awesome time, and thanks to everyone involved!

Thanks for posting the pics! Looking forward to your impressions!

ZLTFUL

Looks like I might be getting a blurb from Positive Feedback. Spent a good 2 hours with one of the gentlemen who writes for them just jamming out.

EndersShadow

ZLTFUL wrote: »

Looks like I might be getting a blurb from Positive Feedback. Spent a good 2 hours with one of the gentlemen who writes for them just jamming out.

Step 1 to becoming a audio dealer/distributor lol....

kharp1

Yes, Josh does usually have far more money on his front end than most have in their entire room. To put together a system that is sonically equal, or slightly better, for a fraction of the cost of his is quite a feat. Congrats. Wish I could have been there.

erniejade

Was gunny using Norma?

erniejade

Nice skip. After hearing norma vs another brand, i am definitely a norma fan.

PSOVLSK

Skip's room was phenomenal, yet I spent most of the day Friday in the room next door listening to the new Usher bookshelves and enjoying some great conversation with Daryl (and for a good part of the time, Marvin). I suppose that speaks volumes to my standing as an audiophile

I didn't visit every room, but my favorites were:
1) Audio Thesis
2) JMW
3) Stereo Clarity
4) Sonner Audio
5) Volti Audio

Probably in that order, but I could possibly flip-flop 1 and 2 as well as 3 and 4.

Wish I could have stayed and spent the day Saturday as I had originally planned so that I could have spent more time with those of you I know and hopefully gotten to know some of that I don't know. I did enjoy my dinner at Ten50 on Friday night. My first time there and it didn't disappoint (though it did take a little more out of my wallet than I had planned ).

HzTweaker

@displayname thanks for posting the pics!

I seen quite a few ring radiator tweeters in those set ups.

Just my taste but when I went to LASF I really like the sound of Stereo Clarity's towers that are placed behind the ones that are currently playing in the photo. Not the liked the most out of all the offerings at the show, but they make a sound I like and not outrageously priced IMO.

I will not be missing LASF next year!

Milito

I hope I can make it next year.

Clipdat

Thank you @displayname for taking and posting the photos, appreciate it!

marvda1

https://parttimeaudiophile.com/2019/05/04/must-see-rooms-day-one-lsaf-2019/?fbclid=IwAR0eXSWNzDg12Sn9IBfwOu4nMtoYPgQcHksxrMXhVrPX_Lit3GbmJPrZh3g

marvda1

DSkip wrote: »

displayname wrote: »

I'll probably type up more details later, but I wanted to toss those pics in here while I had a chance.
LSAF is insanely fun! It was great getting to meet some more polkies and hear a ton of gear. Thank you to all the more seasoned guys for taking me in and showing me the ropes. Also for the generous amounts of booze provided! Getting to hang out with everyone and chatting was the real fun of the day for sure. It was also really cool getting to have some more extended conversations with Gunny from Sonner and Josh from JWM Acoustics.

I will certainly be going again, and I'll probably make a stronger effort to get a room for at least one night. Quite a few rooms stood out to me, and the whole experience made me appreciate my system as well. Always room for improvement, but I'm pretty happy with what I've built with my current investment.

My personal favorites where Skip's main room (Norma and Rosso) and the JWM Acoustics room. I actually told Josh if I was there looking to buy, I would have a really hard time deciding between those two systems. Obviously that's before any price was factored in, purely based on the sound I heard at the show.

Awesome time, and thanks to everyone involved!

Josh is a master at the show. He always has good sound and is usually the benchmark for me as far as competition goes. I didn’t get to spend much of any time in his room this year and I’m disappointed.

I take your statement as a great compliment given his dac was the same cost as all of my front end added together.

As for the show, I made it around to almost every room and did my best to be a social butterfly. I was up until 4:00 am every night and had a blast. I just got home though and my body is telling me what a fool I was. Saturday night Danny Richie and I got into some pretty involved conversations and A/Bed some gear. I also had an attendee want to A/B USB cables that night so it was a lot of switching gear around.

I want to give massive props to Voltz again. The man is a trooper and will go out of his way to do anything for anyone. If not for him I might still be at the hotel boxing things up. Gunny from Sonner was also a great help.

Ryan helped me big time with some networking issues I was having and without that my show would’ve been much more difficult. Thanks brother!

Cheers to all you guys. I didn’t get to see any of you as much as I would have liked but it’s still great seeing all your ugly mugs.

skip, i beg to differ, i think josh should follow your model more. josh does have a formula, expensive equipment (awe factor), lots of bass ( awe factor), loud party volume (awe factor,(awe factor) and sprinkle in some sparkle. all this on first listen or to a novice in audio will really impress but where's the spacial cues that give you a sense of sound stage depth, height, or width? where are the nuances and textures of instruments and voices?
great studio speakers.

displayname

Some other general impressions from the show.
Obviously I talked about the ones that impacted me the most first. Skip, Josh and Gunny know what they are doing. Having all those rooms in row made for a powerhouse of talent.

Not going to talk about everything, just the stuff that stuck out in my mind.

The Volti audio system was very cool. They are huge, but I enjoyed the time I spent in that room. I was expecting the massive horns and separate bass module to overload the room, but it was really comfortable and smooth in there. I would be very interested to try out their smaller speakers, particularly the Rival.

I liked how Raven audio had their amps in 4 different rooms so you could get a sense of them on various gear. All in all, quality amps that seem worth considering. I didn't care as much for their speakers, particularly in the flagship room. Might have been a difficult set up issue, might have just not been my taste. I also liked their entry level room. Pretty solid system they they said comes in at around $7k for everything - cords, speakers, dac, amp. Seemed like a solid value for the price point.

The Pi speakers in my opinion held their center image remarkably well, especially considering they had the big entertainment stand and TV right in the middle.

I've been curious about Tekton, so I was to see some there. Not my favorite, but when you consider the $1600 price point... well then they are more interesting. Certainly worth considering if you have space and tighter budget.

On the value side, Selah Audio was another stand out. I was expecting their big bookshelves speakers to cost a lot more, and the 2,300(???) price point impressed me.

Supra Hifi's room was another really fun one. I didn't spend too much time in there, but that's a group I'd trust to put together a quality system. I didn't dig too much into their gear list, and I get feeling they fall on the higher end of a price sheet, but it was a memorable system.

Like I said, if I was looking to spend I'd be calling Skip and Josh and spending more time with their stuff. Now that I have some more insight in the prices of their gear... I'd be calling Skip first, lol.

tratliff

I was not able to make it. Work got in the way.

What front end components was Josh running?

marvda1

Allnic phono pre, absolare integrated and pre, kodo turntable, echole speaker cables

lightman1

The Madman himself.

marvda1

that's that $200 per bottle scotch

marvda1

here we go.

marvda1

and

marvda1

and

marvda1

and

marvda1

and